27 May 2013

"After the release of Love This Giant last year, we did a tour of North America and Australia that was like nothing we’ve ever done before—drums, keys and Annie and I supported by 8 choreographed brass players. We did the new material, but also a lot of recognizable songs, arranged for that group. The sound is incredible, and it’s a bit of a visual spectacle as well. We were pretty excited at how it turned out. The critical and audience response was great too! Touring a group that size with a fairly complex show is a big financial gulp, so it has taken us a while to collect enough offers in North America and Europe, but now they are in and we kick off in a few weeks.

"One of our business folks had the idea that we might offer a taste of what we’re up to—so we put together an EP to give folks a taste of what to expect. It has one song that didn’t make it on the record (a waltz featuring some lovely glass harmonica), a couple of energized remixes of some of the album tunes and two live tracks of the sort of more familiar material we do in the set. Did we say it’s FREE? We’re very excited at how this whole project came out so we want more folks to discover it. Download it below!"

The David Byrne and St. Vincent tour begins in June. The Brass Tactics EP comes with cover art and a credits and lyrics booklet.

23 May 2013

Continuing on our globe-trotting adventure, the fifth stop on our Planet Hopping Week is tricky, because this ancient culture has established communities in North Africa, the Balkans, Western Europe, and the USA. We are talking about Sephadi Jews. Sephardic refers to the descendants of Jewish settlers, originally from the Ottoman Empire, who lived in the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain and Portugal, until the Spanish Inquisition.

In 1492 the Jews were expelled from Spain. They were forced to leave without their belongings, but they carried with them their heritage, their language (a dialect of Spanish called Ladino) and their love of music to their new homes. For centuries, the heartfelt and melodic music of the Sephardic Jews accompanied them all in the nations they settled, from North Africa to Balkans to Turkey, Greece, Italy and America to present-day in Israel. Those diverse influences are evidenced in their culture and music.

Wherever they settled- they established and lived in close-knit communities, maintaining their own customs and traditions. Music played a major part in their communal life and on special occasions -- days of sorrow or joy -- they sang the ballads handed down from generation to generation....

Most Sephardic Jews in the United States trace their heritage back to the lands of the former Ottoman Empire. The Sephardic musical heritage is most noted for its rich body of "Romansas" ( ballads), "Cantigas" ( folk songs), and "Endechas"( laments) in Ladino, may of which go back to Medieval and Renaissance Spain and are found in variants throughout the Hispanic world.

This vibrant Sephardic song culture has been passed down within communities throughout the Mediterranean, as well as in Israel and the Americas. While contemporary interpretations have tended to present it as "early music", Sephardic music actually belongs to the Middle Eastern musical sphere. Much of it utilizes the system "magams" or modes, common to Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Persian and other Mediterranean and near Eastern music. The instruments traditionally used to accompany Ladino singing (from Turkey and the Balkan) are typical of Ottoman Turkish popular music at the turn of the century, and include oud, kanun, tanbur, djumbush, dumbeg, tambourine, as well as other instruments.

22 May 2013

Contemporary composer Aldo Brizzi wrote the music for Brizzi do Brasil, an album of songs written for Brazilian and Portuguese artists, such as Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Teresa Salgueiro of Madredeus, and Carlinhos Brown.

Italian born Brizzi lives in Salvador Bahia. He writes:

The original idea that inspired this recording was to write a musical based on the libretto of the Mexican poet Francisco Serrano, a story about Orpheus who descends into hell, and who, instead of meeting Eurydice, encounters Alice in Wonderland.

I prepared four demo songs for the producers of the project, and these were a bit removed from the usual projects for which I’m known. I proposed the idea to Alan Foix, director of a studio in Paris which received subvention from the Ministry of French Culture, and he became enthusiastic about the project. From him I obtained space and support to record some pieces. It was during the World Cup in France, and the presence of many Brazilian artists in Paris helped.

The original release of the album, Brizzi do Brasil, is available for free download at last.fm, and the reissue is available for purchase from the usual music sources

Now, Rosevere has released Time Lapse: Volume 2, a set of his own long-form ambient compositions. These new works are "intended for meditation or just relaxing to," according to the Happy Puppy Records label on which the work is released.

By the end of track four, "Squinting at the Sun," listeners at Oddio Overplay headquarters reported feeling relaxed and at peace. If we can pipe this into global political and financial institutions, perhaps this album will save the world.

17 May 2013

Creative Commons licensing has opened a new world for collaboration. Most artists with works in the Free Music Archive share their copyrighted work with some rights reserved. Depending on the chosen license for the work, this often allows others to incorporate the work into something new without the use of lawyers and other middle men.

An avenue of collaboration that the Free Music Archive has actively promoted is the reuse of recordings in film and video. The FMA Tracks To Sync and Music for Video selections offer filmmakers a sampling of the variety of music available for reuse. The FMA also has a partnership with Vimeo, the video host, helping filmmakers find just the right music to fit the setting of the film.

The collaborative music+video results have been remarkable around the world. In fact, in some cases this collaboration even benefits the world. Nonprofit organizations, not typically known for having large promotional budgets, can benefit greatly by re-purposing Creative Commons recordings licensed for reuse.

One FMA success story is the union of a recording by American artist Aaron Ximm with a public service message for sustainability organization Redress. Ximm's track is used in a promo video for the EcoChic Design Award.

Redress is a Hong Kong based NGO with a mission to promote environmental sustainability in Asia's fashion industry by reducing textile waste, pollution, water and energy consumption. We achieve this via educational sustainable fashion shows, exhibitions, competitions, seminars, research and media outreach. Our unique profile allows us to collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders. We work with multiple fashion designers, textile and garment manufacturers, retailers, schools and universities, multilateral organizations, governments, NGOs, financial institutions and media organizations.

15 May 2013

In 1884, Pierrot Lunaire: Rondels Bergamasques (Moonstruck Pierrot), a collection of 50 poems by symbolist Belgian poet Albert Giraud was published. The protagonist in the poems is Pierrot, that classic sad clown who dates back to the 16th century. Pierrot ached for the love of Columbine who broke his heart when she ran away with Harlequin. He is such a classic that Pierrot is the inspiration for the white-faced pantomimes in theaters and on city streets for more than 500 years.

Many composers have set the Giraud poems of Pierrot to music. However, it was expressionist composer Arnold Schoenberg who created one of the landmark musical masterpieces of the 20th century with 21 of the poems. His Dreimal Sieben Gedichte Aus Albert Girauds "Pierrot Lunaire" (Three Times Seven Poems From Albert Giraud's "Pierrot Lunaire"), more commonly known as Pierrot Lunaire, Opus 21 or Moonstruck Pierrot, premiered in 1912 in Berlin. Schoenberg used a German translation of the poems for his work.

14 May 2013

A recent Blogio post mentioned that the automotive manufacturer Toyota gives away music releases. They have been doing this since at least 2010 on their Scion A/V site. Some recordings are no longer available for download, but many are.

Here are some that the Oddio Overplay gang have enjoyed. Visit to see what Scion A/V releases interest you.

"Eisley’s fourth album, Currents, is a study in contrasts. It’s the sound of a band growing up, but not forgetting the magical power of childlike curiosity or the joy of unselfconscious creativity. It’s an album that nods to playful pop and stormy rock, but also gentle electronica and delicate classical. But more than that, Currents finds the group forging their own path in the world, but never losing sight of the homegrown heart that’s made the band beloved by legions of fans."-- NoiseTrade profile

Typical modern hip hop sadly reflects ignorance, negativity, misogyny, and violence. In some shining scenes, however, you find intelligence, positivity, equality, and community -- all vital to early hip hop. This is one of those shining scenes. Hear their messages. Most of the artists on this RhymeSquare compilation are artists to support and celebrate. That says something good about the good people at RhymeSquare, too.

Go on and get yourself some fun music, fun threads, and a cool little bear at RhymeSquare!

09 May 2013

The companies Adult Swim and Dr. Pepper released a new compilation this week. This time around they are featuring garage rock. Garage Swim showcases unreleased tracks from Black Lips, The Gories, King Tuff, Mikal Cronin, JEFF the Brotherhood, King Khan and The Gris Gris, Mind Spiders, Bass Drum of Death, and others.

Garage rock fans, do you know about Garage Fest organizer Toyota's garage series? (Garage, get it? Oi.) They have released over the last few years something like 50 songs from bands like Black Lips, King Tuff, Oblivians, Nobunny, The Spits, Cola Freaks, Reigning Sound, Dirtbombs, Davilla 666, and the likes. Those tracks are only streaming now, but check the cover art on some of these! The albums Abdication by Reigning Sound and The King Khan Experience by King Khan, however, ARE still available for download.

German netlabel Aaahh Records shares two albums by ne:o in which the band really shines, studio album illoj and a live performance album direkt. Both album pages have donation buttons for you to show your appreciation.

07 May 2013

The chaconne and passacaglia are types of musical composition first found in the early 1600s in the baroque era in Spain. They were vehicles for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression. Both usually had a bass-line serving a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and melodic invention. The bass-line typically descend stepwise from the tonic to the dominant pitch of the scale while the harmonies emphasize the circle of fifths. The passacaglia is typically based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple meter.

05 May 2013

Viktar Siamashka and Co, a free-jazz quartet in Mink, Bielarus, just released their Biotope album on the avant-garde netlabel Black Square (Чёрный квадрат). These spontaneous improvised pieces were recorded live "in anticafe Fisher House, Miensk, Bielarus" and fans of improvised free-jazz will want to hear this one.

Siamashka performs beautifully on woodwinds and brass. The group -- Viktar Siamashka (winds, percussion), Eryk Arlou-Shymus (double-bass), Maxim Iukin (voice, percussion), Raman Jarash (big drum) -- holds together as if they have played these pieces for years.

"Free music from 'the last dictatorship in Europe'. Spontaneous improvisation. Operative composing. Something at the intercrossing of free-jazz, folk, academic and electronic music. All compositions were created together, alive, 'here and now' and without the using of phonograms or rehearse fragments."-- Viktar Siamashka and Co

04 May 2013

Y'all wanna roll wit me down to Hotlanta? Pop in Life In Technicolor Vol. 1 by Spree Wilson and The Flush (Grammy nominated producers for Outkast, Janelle Monae, Little Dragon, RaeKwon, Phantogram, etc.) and you will find yourself immersed in Atlanta, Georgia, USA culture. This concept album recorded at renowned Stankonia Recording Studios is a fun slice of "blazin' hot hip hop and R&B" with crazy Atlanta radio segments leading you from song to song.

Life In Technicolor Vol. 1 liner notes explain that it is inspired by "vivid and feel-good memories of young love and carefree summers during the 'Golden Days' of Atlanta’s bass music scene.... Drawing inspiration from the sounds of legendary bass music pioneers from Kilo Ali, KP & Envy, So So Def Bass All-Stars to Raheem The Dream. This project, self-proclaimed as 'audio artwork' clearly embodies the true essence of fun times and summer love growing up in the city of Atlanta."

Spree Wilson writes, "The reason we started working on this is because we wanted to make a fun project that was influenced by being young in the summer and falling in love. A lot of these ideals stem from my childhood and spending my summers in Atlanta living with my grandmother. This EP owes as much to the city of Atlanta as it does to the people who impacted my life there musically during that time."

The Flush adds, "Crafting the musical soundtrack for the Life In Technicolor EP was nothing short of amazing. Embarking upon this musical journey with Spree Wilson taught us so much about our city (Atlanta), it's culture, and our role in continuing the musical legacy that inspired the creation of this project. We found a great team mate in Spree, and thankfully we were able to successfully articulate his music vision as the sole producers of the Life In Technicolor EP."

The Life In Technicolor EP will transport you to summer days in the South and make you crave soul food! A free fun vacation thanks to Spree Wilson, The Flush, and the whole cast of performers.

03 May 2013

The adventurous avant-garde HAZE netlabel has a series of compilations titled Sound Interpretations by contemporary composers and experimental sound artists. Each compilation is inspired by and dedicated to the brilliance of an outstanding 20th century writer.

HAZE writes, "In this project we propose to rethink literary heritage of the 20th century. Over the 2012-2013 years, each month we will release the compilation dedicated to the 12 most outstanding writers of the 20th century."

02 May 2013

"Tom and Liza are the Wind Whistles and they live together in the suburbs of Vancouver, Canada. As an indie folk duo, they both sing and both play acoustic instruments (guitar,bass). Sometimes they play alone and sometimes they bring friends, more times not.

"They think they sound like a cross of Lemonheads and Violent Femmes while people tell them they sound like a cross of the Decemberists and the Moldy Peaches. Beginning in the spring of 2006, they've done the usual artist thing: demo, radio, festivals, tours, friends and lots and lots of shows. In 2007, they have released their first full length window sills and try to spread it around as much as they can. Thats why they have decided to re-release their 12-track LP under a creative commons license."

01 May 2013

The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads. The Free Music Archive is directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America. Radio has always offered the public free access to new music. The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet.

Every mp3 you discover on The Free Music Archive is pre-cleared for certain types of uses that would otherwise be prohibited by copyright laws that were not designed for the digital era. These uses vary and are determined by the rightsholders themselves who feel that allowing a degree of free cultural access is beneficial not only to their own pursuits, but to our society as a whole. Are you a podcaster looking for pod-safe audio? A radio or video producer searching for instrumental bed music that won't put your audience to sleep? A remix artist looking for pre-cleared samples? Or are you simply looking for some new sounds to add to your next playlist? The Free Music Archive is a resource for all that and more, and unlike other websites, all of the audio has been hand-picked by established audio curators.